Hey there, dear readers, I’ve had a real surge of crafty creativity lately and I thought it would be fun to post about what I’ve been up to, what I’m thinking about, and what’s up next.

After unveiling the hat from my last post I somehow got myself involved in a whole ton of swaps for more of those. I’ve just about got the pattern completely memorized at this point, not to mention perfected. I’ve since finished two more of those and am almost done with the third. Exhibits A:

and B:

The gray one is cascade eco wool held double (sounds crazy, but it’s a very lofty yarn, trust me!) and the maroon one is lamb’s pride worsted. The third hat, also in lamb’s pride worsted, is waiting until I can get together with the recipient and make it fit her. She’s getting a custom fitting because when she tried on the original lumberjack hat the fit was, um, interesting. And by interesting I mean that a hat that normally hits the middle of my forehead was halfway down her face. I didn’t think my head was that big, but, well, apparently it is.

As for what else I’m working on, I really need to get off my ass and finish this vest. I mean, really. The last time I took a picture of it was right before I started the neck and armhole decreases:

I swear there’s more of it now. There is no good reason why I haven’t just finished this up. Remember vestvember? As in – NOVEMBER? I started my vest about the same time Minty started hers, and I had big plans of finishing it during the month, which I completely could have done. To be fair, there was a design project that came up with a deadline, and that was initially why I set the vest aside. Listen to me and the BS excuses. I’m a huge fan of knitting colorwork, and I really, really want the finished vest. And I’m chomping at the bit to try steeking for the first time – sick, I know? I really want to knit this huge complicated thing and then cut it with scissors. What is wrong with me.

The real reason I haven’t finished it is that I have total craft ADD. I just want to do everything all at once. I have big plans to make a Stripes (seriously, check it out – it’s basically the perfect sweater), which, initially I thought I’d at least start for the knitting olympics, but it may be more reasonable to finish this vest first. But then there’s the omnipresent temptation of colorwork mittens. I’ve had a kit for the Chevron Love Mittens hanging around for God only knows how long, and I really desperately need another pair of good cold weather mittens. Imagine those with a lining in laceweight – oh my.

Oh and just when I thought this post about my imminent cast-on frenzy was done, I remembered two other things I’m frothing at the mouth to try. The first is colorwork in crochet. The minute I saw these mittens I had to run out and buy the latest Interweave Crochet – which, I might has a ton of really cute, eminently wearable patterns in it. Then I saw their feature and patterns on Tunisian crochet, and oh mah gah. I tried this technique years and years and years ago when I first learned crochet, so it seems I need to re-learn. I’m planning on making a couple swatches and hopefully a quick scarf, and then moving up to this jacket. I’m pretty wary of bulky yarns for sweaters, because frankly I don’t really need the extra bulk, but in a jacket it works. I love the feminine cut, and I imagine that jacket would stitch up pretty quickly and then provide me with endless hours of wooly warmth. That texturey stitch pattern would be great in a semi-solid yarn.

Now when am I going to find the time to do this? Well I was thinking those 10 or so hours I spend every day doing useless things like eating, sleeping, and bathing – those would be good.

Wow, has it really been a whole month since the last time I checked in? Yikes. I’ve been a bit hunkered down with school work, but that definitely doesn’t mean I haven’t been knitting! I spent October knitting along with the Through the Loops Mystery Sock for Socktoberfest. For those of you unfamiliar with the premise, Kirsten publishes a sock pattern in 5 parts, one part each week. First you get the cuff, then the leg, the heel, the foot, and finally the toe. You don’t know what the sock will look like going into it, so it’s a bit of an adventure.

Those people who finish a pair by the end of November are eligible for prizes. In order to motivate myself I thought I’d try something new – I’ve been knitting both socks at once! At first I tried casting them both on the same superlong needle, magic loop style, but this just wasn’t for me. Instead I picked up an extra circular needle and I’ve been switching off between the two socks. First I knit a cuff, then another cuff, then a leg, and another leg, and so on and so on. This is MUCH more interesting to me than knitting one whole sock and then doing the whole thing over again! This will probably end up being the fastest pair of socks I’ve ever knit. I know a month and a half isn’t exactly fast for socks, but I have serious sock finishing issues. For me, this is a miracle. I’m almost done with my second foot section, and since the toes are so small and quick I should have a completed pair to show you in a couple days! I’ll be sure to blog about them with all the details at that point.

My other active WIP is for vestvember! There are vestvember groups on flickr and ravelry, FYI. This is a nice, casual, friendly knitalong. Got a vest you started a long time ago? Come finish it up! Don’t think you’ll finish a vest during the month of November? No biggie!

I had a hard hard time deciding on a vest pattern, but I eventually went for the challenge of knitting my first large colorwork garment, and my first steeked project. It’s Eunny Jang’s Deep V Argyle Vest. (here it is on ravelry) I’m working this in cascade 220 with a nice chocolate brown and robin’s egg blue. I just got into the colorwork section last night and so far I’m having a blast.

The two main runner up vests I was considering were Blustery from My Fashionable Life and Sexy Vesty from Canary Sanctuary. I was particularly inspired by Tina’s tweed vesty. I have yarn in my stash that would be great for each of these, so hopefully I’ll get around to them sooner rather than later! I’ll admit the appeal of knitting a garment that doesn’t involve sleeves is indeed awesome.